Bismarck weekly tribune., 1887-01-28
"A Detailed Statement of the Business
Of this Office The Results
Methods and Means, st.,
The Bureau of Statistics Valuable
Experience Gained Dakota
Weather Service. ~'" .ss
Settlement and Growth-POpulatiOn
Railroad Development
The Black Hills.
Future Needs and Plans-The Exam
pie Of Other States-What
is Recommended.

.. is Recommended.
An Exhausted Condensation,
The biennial report of the commissioner
of immigration and statistician was fur
nished members of the legislature yester-
day. 1t makes a volume Of 72 pages, con-
tanning numerous tables under different
heads Of statistical and general informa-
ton, and is embellished with several finely
executed diagrams. A handsome map of
the Territory, revised to date, will also
accompany the report.
The salient features of the report are
presented in the following extracts from
document that will undoubtedly be given
careful consideration by the legislature
and prove interesting and valuable read
ing to our citizens generally.
Copies of the report will be mailed to
the newspapers and exchanges of the COM
missioner's office in a few days.
IMMIGRATION.
Summing up the visible results thus far
capacity as bureau of information, it is.
found that during the actual period of
little over nineteen months covered by this
report, nearly six thousand (6,O0O) Separ-
ate inquiries have been received by mail,
Of which number very large proportion
have represented from six to a d zen or
more parties equally interested with the
writer in obtaining the Dakota information
sought.
1t is reasonable to say, upon careful re-
Election, that not less than twenty thous-
and (2OOO0) persons have been supplied
direct from this Office with the above infor-
nation during the period stated.
This does not include the correspondence
relating to colony projects, of which there
has been considerable, nor does it embrace
the distribution of printed matter through
the passenger and emigration departments
of the railroad companies Of the territory.
= Ii it we're desided to have recourse to the
approximate statistics on the subject, it
would be no exaggeration to say that the
printed information sent out by this office,
both directly in the IN ills and through the
cooperation of the railroads and the means
so successfully employed by them in reach
ing the people, as well as through the vigi-
liant volunteer corps of private correspond
ents of the office, has secured from all
sources an original distribution among co.
600 persons:
The most careful attention has been paid
to each and every request for information,
according to the ability Of the office, and
while the funds at its disposal have not
provided the amount and variety OF printed
and illustrated matter which was Of real
been found, as will be further explained, to
at least have every portion of the territory
represented and advertised; so that the
numerous Inquiries made about nearly ev-
cry county, separately named, have been
answered with due regard to the local and
general interests to he subserved.
The printed Information sent out with as
much liberality as the resources of the Of
fee would admit of,has been supplemented
in something like two thousand instances
by personal letters.
The letter books of the Office will show
the character and Importance of this writ
ten correspondence: 1t may be very true
to some person whose various questions
are practically all answered in the printed
matter sent him, but it is the opinion Of
this office that it is better policy to write
ten letters, however unnecessary they may
be seemingly. than to seek in a single case
to obtain the benefit of any doubt in that
direction.
Every possible and proper assistance has
been lent all colony projects which have
come within the knowledge Of the Office.
This class of correspondence has in
creased very much during the past year.
and it has been a matter of no little regret
that the limited resources and cramped
means of the Office have prevented that
larger attention being paid to this import
ant field of work, which promises a rich
harvest for the seeding.
AS far as heard from, the colonies set
tied in the territory during the past two
years have proved satisfactory, meeting
with about all the success expected at
first, and furnishing good examples of
what colonies and cOl0nists, under ordi-
nary circumstances. may hope to accom-
plish and secure on coming out to Dakota
as settlers and farmers.
The colonies which invariably do the
best in Dakota, following the experience
where there is the largest degree of per
sonal freedom and independence 1t is on
this account that the smaller colonies fire.
quently prove the harder and thriftier at
the start, on taking root in this free soil.
\
The territory of Dakota, with respect
more particularly just at this time to the
settlement of her free and cheap lands, is
engaged in vast business enterprise. 1t
~ WduiteSGly Ln0 part Oh WISDOM 10 apply
to the conduct of the same those practical
business principles which ordinary COM
mercial experience has demonstrated are
the pillars of success.
+
Out of the appropriation by the legisla-
ture of 81 900 for the general expenses of
the Office for the two years ending Decem-
Der 81, 1896, there was available for print
ing and publishing purposes strictly not to
exceed $1,000.
When it is considered that the single edi-
tion OF the large and handsome pamphlet
descriptive of the territory, prepared under
the authority Of the governor as an adjunct
of the Dakota exhibit and display at the
New Orleans exposition of 1884 cost
more than the entire available publishing
fund proper, 1t may be more readily under
stood why the publications issued by this
office have been so few in number.and why
1t was that something more ambitions and
satisfactory could not be undertaken, with
respect both to the general description
Of Dakota and its more elaborate presenta-
ton by sections and in geographical divis-
ions.
The publications made during the two
years consisted of seventeen numbers OF
the Monthly Bulletin of the Commissioner
OF Immigration, two small pamphlets re-